Southby-Halbish delivers latest injury blow

Eloise Southby after announcing she would not play in the 2006 Commonwealtrh Games because of an injured ankle.Photo: John Donegan

By Karen LyonFebruary 4, 2006

AUSTRALIAN netball's injury woes deepened further yesterday when
star goal shooter Eloise Southby-Halbish became the latest senior
player to withdraw from the Commonwealth Games.

Already without the services of captain Liz Ellis and fellow
defender Mo'onia Gerrard  who are recovering from knee
reconstructions  the team will sorely miss Southby-Halbish as
it tries to defend its title as the only nation to have won the
netball gold medals at the Games.

The final team will be announced next week.

The Victorian's place in the squad will be taken by Sydney
Swifts goal attack Megan Anderson, who has 15 Test caps to her
name.

The 31-year-old announced this week she would miss the beginning
of the domestic season this year and play in the New Zealand
competition.

Yesterday, Anderson said she was "very lucky" to have been given
a second chance to be picked in the Australian team for the
Commonwealth Games.

"It's a big shock and I'm still coming to terms with it. For
Eloise, it's a horrible way to be out of the squad, but hopefully
she will come back a better player as a result of it," Anderson
said. "Now I've got to look at this as another opportunity for me
and make the most of it."

Southby-Halbish, who had major surgery on her ankle in October
2004 in a bid to be part of the Games team, will have a 10-minute
operation on her right ankle next Thursday to scrape away built-up
scar tissue that has effectively caused the ankle to lock and
robbed her of any real movement.

Despite the apparent ease of the operation, the veteran of 34
Tests for Australia will be sidelined for up to eight weeks.

The Melbourne Phoenix co-captain said she had known "deep down"
that something was wrong with her ankle during the recent heavy
training schedule.

"I have obviously had to put my ankle under a lot of stress and
a lot of training and obviously the last couple of training camps
it has been quite sore and I couldn't take the court against Fiji
and we had to investigate further," she said.

"It was a bit of shock when i had to have an MRI and found there
was damage there that I couldn't fix without surgery."

Southby-Halbish said it had been tempting to play on with
pain-killing injections because of the Games being in her home
town, but she knew she could not regain 100 per cent fitness before
the tournament and to play on would have been selfish.

The decision had been taken out of her hands once the team's
chief medical officer, Susan White, had viewed the results of last
week's scans.

"I couldn't get back to 100 per cent, I could probably get to
somewhere between 60 and 80 per cent but with that mind, the team
doctor ruled me out, so there wasn't a choice in the end,"
Southby-Halbish said.

"They couldn't carry a player like that into a big tournament
that is (played) day in and day out.

"I have been at a Commonwealth Games before, I know how hard it
is on your body. By the last day you are hardly standing up when
you are 100 per cent. There was no other option."

Southby-Halbish will travel to Canberra to speak to her
teammates before the squad's last training camp. At the end of the
camp next Friday a final team of 12 will be named for the
Games.

Australian acting captain Sharelle McMahon, who has been
Southby-Halbish's on-court shooting partner playing for Australia
and Phoenix for a decade, said she was devastated for her
friend.

"The squad has had quite a few injuries over the past 12 months,
which is disappointing, but we are positive that the group that is
going forward will be able to do the job," said McMahon.

McMahon, who will captain Australia in Ellis' absence, said she
was confident other team members could step up to replace the
experience the team had lost because of injury.